The Peanut Man

Eddy, single, 45 years old, is Berlin´s fastest billboard paster. He is neither handsome nor rich and economically a 'reunification-loser.' Once, however, he has a 'lucky shake': in a casting for an advertising agency, he stands out by shaking a peanut can rhythmically back and forth in an inimitably innocent way. '…am now not just a little billboard paster, I am now something very different…' explains Eddy to his girlfriend Margot. Overnight Eddy turns into a top model. But the market follows certain laws, as in love, life and film. SHAKY makes mistakes and a street survey shows that sales are dropping. Ralf, Eddy´s friend, will peddle junk at the Alex; Kasulke, the capitalist, will use his 'brothers from the east' with his low wages; Margot asks herself whether her roof-garden could be turned into a fitness-centre… But the dream ends abruptly: in the new peanut-advertising concept, the chimpanzee 'Crazy' is the new 'Shaky'. Berlin 1991. The Wall is gone, yet the city is still divided. When has it ever been, that a State is simply done away with, and its existence explained as historical error? When is it ever, that overnight, a market of 18 million consumers opens? East and West sniff at each other; are uncertain; or try different ways to profit from the new political and economic situation. The story is about advertising, and therefore, about selling and profit. About the naïve fascination everyone has for advertising, and about the exploitation of people. An dlast but not least, about not giving up and to keep on going.